Wobbly, unlivable planet discovered by Kepler telescope

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE >> A new planet found wobbling throughout space could be the key to planetary formations in the far reaches of space.

The Kepler telescope found a planet about the size of Neptune 2,300 light-years away in the Cygnus constellation, dubbed Kepler-413b, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced Tuesday. The gas planet is slightly tilted and orbits around a set of binary stars, a rarity.

“One of the reasons planets around binary stars are interesting to people who want to know how many planets are out there and what they’re like, is it gives us a chance to study where planets can form around multiple star systems,” said Nick Gautier, deputy project scientist for the Kepler mission.

Kepler-413b is tilted 2.5 degrees in respect to the plane of the star pair’s orbit, appearing to wobble like a child’s top, according to a news release.

“When a planet has an equatorial bulge because it’s spinning fast, then it presents an asymmetrical shape to the body,” Gautier said. “It’s the gravitational pull to the bulge that does it.”

Wobbling is an unspectacular find in a planet, as any planet on a tipped axis does, Gautier said. Earth, for example, wobbles every 26,000 years. But since Kepler 413-b orbits around two stars, wobbling is more frequent (an 11-year cycle), causing the planet’s temperature too erratically shift from freezing to sweltering.

“Because it has two stars there, it can have definite affects on the weather and season of the planet,” Gautier said. “This planet has an eccentric orbit. It’s not a perfect circle. It’s 30 days close to the star, then 30 days away.”